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Tamerlan Tsarnaev
Tamerlan Tsarnaev (21 October 1986-19 April 2013) was a Russian-American of Chechen and Avar descent who was the main man behind the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013. Tamerlan radicalized his brother Dzokhar Tsarnaev with Islamic extremism, and he was believed to be one of the men involved in the 2011 Waltham triple murders with Ibragim Todashev. He was killed by police on 19 April 2013 while trying to flee Boston with his brother, who accidentally hit him with his car while fleeing. Biography Early life Tamerlan Tsarnaev was born on 21 October 1986 in Elista, Kalmyk ASSR, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (present-day Kalmykia, Russia), the son of Chechen father Anzor Tsarnaev and Avar mother Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, as well as the older brother of Dzokhar Tsarnaev. Tsarnaev's family moved to Kyrgyzstan, then to Dagestan in 2001, and finally to the United States in 2003, but Tamerlan would live with his uncle in Kyrgyzstan before heading to America in 2005. He attended the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School public high school, and in 2006 he was rejected from UMass. From 2006 to 2008 he studied at Bunker Hill Community College with the goal of becoming an engineer, but he dropped out of school to concentrate on boxing. A hotheaded man, he punched a Brazilian teen who was dating his sister Bella, having disapproved of their relationship because the boy was not Muslim. Radicalization In 2008, Tsarnaev decided to become a devout Muslim, stopping drinking and smoking, and he attended the controversial Islamic Society of Boston mosque. In 2009, he was arrested for beating up his girlfriend Nadine Ascencao, and he later dated Katherine Russell, a convert to Islam who he called a slut and constantly abused. That same year, he became an extremist, and he was angred by his inability to enter the Olympics, as a back injury prevented him from being a professional boxer. In 2011, the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia warned the FBI that he was an extremist, but the warnings were ignored; he may have been involved in the murder of three Jewish students in Waltham, Massachusetts on 11 September 2011. He later made plans to move to Dagestan with his wife, who wanted to learn a new language and culture. In 2012, he visited Russia, but his father forced him to return to complete his US citizenship application. By 17 July 2012, he had grown a long, thick beard and had darkened his eyes with kohl as a sign of devotion to Islam, oth of these acts being linked to Salafism. He watched jihadist videos on Youtube and became a radical, and he argued with the imam at his mosque for celebrating Muhammad's birthday, Thanksgiving, July 4, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and after two disruptions the people of the mosque told him not to return until he would stop shouting. Death On 15 April 2013, Tsarnaev and his brother planted pressure cooker bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon at Boylston Street, and at 2:49 PM the bombs exploded. 3 civilians were killed and 264 wounded, and the FBI identified the suspects through surveillance footage from CCTVs. The FBI and local police began a manhunt for the attackers over the next few days, and on 18 April Tsarnaev performed a carjacking. Early in the morning on 19 April, police located him in the Watertown suburb of Boston and shot him several times while arresting him. His brother drove away in the SUV, hitting and dragging Tamerlan for 20 feet. Due to critical injuries, massive blood loss, and cardiac and respiratory arrest, Tsarnaev died from his wounds, and he was buried at the small al-Barzakh Muslim Cemetery in Doswell, Virginia after protesters picketed outside of funeral parlors in Boston. Category:1986 births Category:2013 deaths Category:Al-Qaeda Category:Avars Category:Chechens Category:Avar-Americans Category:Chechen-Americans Category:Americans Category:Sunnis Category:Killed Category:Russian-Americans Category:Russians Category:Kyrgyz Category:Islamists Category:American Islamists Category:Russian emigrants to America Category:People from Boston Category:People from Massachusetts